Diabetes Awareness Month: Getting Results in Management & Prevention of Its Complications
November is Diabetes Awareness Month.
Every November, National Diabetes Awareness Month is recognized by organizations, charities and individuals in order to increase visibility of the disease and to raise funds for research into its cause, prevention, diagnosis and treatment. (more…)
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How a Woman Can Get Strong Vascular Forearms at Any Age
This incredible veiny forearm belongs to a 71-year-old woman!
The vascular forearm in that top photo belongs to Sharon Smith of Denver, Colorado, who began training in her late 50s.
A forearm like that doesn’t come by accident. Nor does the “veinyness” come as simply a result of age.
How a Woman Can Get Forearm Vascularity at Any Age
Smith explains, “I can say that with advanced training of back and biceps, my forearms have also gained more size and have become more vascular. Like muscle size and distribution, I think vascularity is also part of a genetic makeup.
“As we train large muscle groups to respond to increased weight resistance, other supporting structures are also stimulated to grow.
“I believe veins become larger, denser and more efficient in transporting nutrients to growing muscle. As my back has developed so has my forearm vascularity.”
When Smith trains, she does so seriously, with gusto and fierceness. Many 60+ women are lifting weights these days, and if you make a point of observing them, it won’t be long before you see a few common denominators:
• Going through the motions (very high reps) with very light weight loads or tiny dumbbells
• Avoidance of the deadlift, which recruits forearm muscle
What about younger women who want veiny forearms?
Smith — a substitute teacher and personal trainer — has advice that applies to women of all ages who want that enviable vascular forearm (and biceps area as well).
“I don’t train my forearms in isolation,” says Smith. “They are trained with back and bicep hammer curls. They are also trained with a pronated [overhand] grip on the bar for the deadlift.”
Smith doing a lat pull-down.
Though biceps curls are considered an isolation exercise for the biceps, this single-joint movement also recruits the forearm muscles.
Anyone who has ever performed intense deadlifts knows that this giant compound exercise requires a sturdy grip. And of course, the forearm muscles control the grip.
All back exercises, such as the lat pull-down, recruit forearm muscles. The key is to perform all of these moves with intensity.
The entire set should feel challenging, rather than just the last few reps. If you’re able to carry on a conversation during the set, the load isn’t heavy enough.
If, during your set, you’re laughing while someone is speaking to you – again, the load is too light to ignite super results.
Body Fat Percentage and Muscle Development
Being skinny doesn’t always lead to fit-looking, vascular forearms. And certainly, there are readers here who I’m betting think that Smith’s forearm is “too thin” or “unhealthy looking.”
But ask yourself which forearm you’d rather have when you’re 70: Smith’s, or the scary-looking one below?
The difference is like night and day, and now you can clearly see what a true “thin” and “unhealthy looking” arm looks like.
Muscle Loss and Low Fat
Muscle loss (due to the absence of strength training + advancing age) may make forearm veins visible in some women. But their arms won’t look fit and strong.
What makes veins visible in a fit and healthy way is a program of intense weightlifting and a low body fat percentage.
Smith demonstrates her low body fat percentage — the result of a clean diet with controlled portions, and plenty of carbs to fuel intense weight workouts 5x/wk for about an hour.
The Right Kind of Diet
“My diet is pretty clean [few processed foods] but not really strict at this time,” says Smith. “I’m trying to gain a little more muscularity before I start cutting into my carb intake.
“More salt in my diet does cause me to hold some water and so hides some of my vascularity.
“To be able to really see more veins, if that’s what you really like, you need to get body fat down to under 14% or so and lower salt intake.
“Having some carbs after carb depleting before a workout can bring out more vascularity as well.”
Many foods have “hidden” sodium. Check nutrition labels. Your total daily salt or sodium intake should NOT exceed 1,500 mg if you want veiny forearms.
Supplementation Before a Workout
“Before any of my workouts I take a pre-workout supplement to aid in better nutrient transportation for a better pump and to have a more focused workout,” explains Smith.
“The pre-workout I use is Cellucor C4 15-20 minutes before my workout. I usually add more beta alanine to the 1.6 gm/serving for a total of 2.5-3 g to reduce lactic acid buildup.
“And I add more L-arginine to the 1 gm/serving for a total of 2-3 g. L-arginine benefits muscle growth and performance and produces nitric oxide, a molecule essential to healthy circulation and cell communication.
“The production of NO2 causes vasodilation [expansion or dilation of blood vessels] so that nutrients are better delivered to the working muscles.”
Who says that only MEN should have forearm veins?
Forearm veins are the hallmark of hard work and perseverance.
They are a sign of a fit and able body, because in order for forearms to work hard, the entire arm and often the entire back must also work hard.
You will not gain buff forearms by ONLY doing wrist rolls with a dangling weight or wrist extensions and flexions. Won’t happen.
Other Exercises that Recruit Forearm Muscles
• Pull-up, chin-up
• Bent-over dumbbell or barbell row
• Seated row
Sharon Smith has been in the fitness industry for 25+ years and specializes in the over-40 client.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified through the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained women and men of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
The Harm of Teaching Overweight Kids They’re Perfect As They Are
You may be promoting unhealthy eating habits and eventually obesity by teaching your overweight child that she’s perfect just the way she is.
• This isn’t about body shaming.
• This isn’t about demeaning a child.
• This isn’t about thinning out a child’s self-esteem.
So don’t even go there. Instead, it’s about being more mindful of what you say to your overweight child so that she doesn’t think it’s okay to have a junk food diet, be sedentary and be hefty.
“You’re Perfect just the Way You Are”
When this statement is meant to refer to the child’s inner self, to encourage socializing and speaking her opinions, to encourage questioning something that doesn’t seem right, to report a “bad touch” and any other perceived infractions committed by adults against that child – then by golly, keep making this statement to your daughter (or son).
But it’s a whole new animal when a very plus-size Instagram influencer tells her overweight young child she’s “perfect” just the way she is – referring strictly to her body. Yes, TO HER BODY.
I was inspired to write this warning to moms – who’ve become transfixed (and possibly confused) by the body positivity movement – after reading an influencer’s Instagram post.
This 265-pound influencer (yes, she’s posted her weight) has a noticeably overweight young daughter.
This influencer claims to continuously preach how the girl should accept her overweight body, not try to change it, and that she’s perfect as is.
An Overweight Child’s Body Is Not Perfect As Is
Shutterstock/Yuriy Golub
This can be a gateway to adult obesity, including morbid, not to mention an impediment at excelling in sports.
Never mind how she looks in the prom dress.
What about athletic performance and the ability to run fast?
Just what did the body positive influencer say?
She had partnered with Dove. Her message is as follows:
“The future shines bright for you, my dear daughter. To stand before the mirror and see that every inch of you is perfect just the way it is. You are able to see on TV or in a magazine images of women and girls who look like you and haven’t been digitally altered.
“Times are changing and I’m very thrilled to be part of all the positive things going on to ensure our next generation grows up with high self-esteem.
“That’s why I’m so eager to continue to partner with @Dove on their #ShowUs and no digital distortion campaigns.”
The message coming through is this: What a girl/woman looks like is more important than anything else.
What’s wrong with that picture?
A lot. It promotes the concept that women are first and foremost ornaments to be looked at.
Never mind the brains and creativity. It’s all about how they look.
This means every minute a girl spends focusing on body positivity is a minute subtracted from focusing on her knowledge, opinions, asssertiveness skills, artistic or musical abilities, creative juices, debating skills, ahtletic goals, etc.
To the moms out there, do you really think encouraging your chubby daughter to wear shorts and two-piece swimsuits is more important than encouraging her to read books, learn about science, use her new telescope for nighttime star gazing, or helping her appreciate classical music or helping her (in a fun way, of course) develop athletic prowess?
Never mind the miniature bikini to help her love her cellulite.
Wouldn’t it benefit her self-esteem and confidence a ton more to sign her up for karate lessons than to keep taking pictures of her in a bikini and posting to Instagram for strangers to see?
Martial Arts for Children of All Sizes Encourages…
• Self-discipline, reduction of temper tantrums
• Self-esteem and self-confidence
• An anti-drug, anti-smoking mindset
• Improved concentration and goal-setting
If it’s not okay for a dog to be overweight, why is it okay for a child to be?
“You are perfect just as you are,” when referencing the body, is a cryptic way of promoting obesity, because many obese adults were overweight, chubby or plump as children.
It’s one thing to assume your child will outgrow her plumpness.
But this particular influencer has told her followers that she routinely tells her daughter that her BODY is perfect just as is, and that no child should ever be put on a diet (as in, portion control and fewer calories from junk food).
Mama even had her daughter, when she was only six, pitching a thigh-chafing cream on Instagram!
Are you a binary thinker?
People who have a binary way of thinking will believe that the only alternative to this Instagram influencer’s approach is to body shame the young girl.
Mama doesn’t have to say ANYTHING to this child about her weight.
All Mama needs to do is encourage healthier eating, discourage overeating (e.g., lock up the junk food, monitor portions at dinnertime and have only fruit available for unsupervised daytime snacking), and enroll the child in some kind of sport.
Though sports involvement doesn’t guarantee trimming down a pudgy body, a sport that involves a lot of aerobic activity may encourage the child to eat healthier and more mindfully.
As she gets older and wiser she’ll realize that a non-overweight body will improve sports performance.
All of this can be accomplished without body shaming or demeaning the overweight child.
“I love you just the way you are,” is NOT the same as, “Your body is perfect just the way it is.”
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified through the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained women and men of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
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Top image: Amina Filkins, Pexels
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Does Yo-Yo Dieting Damage a Woman’s Heart Health?
What yo-yo dieting may do to a woman’s heart health should be incentive to stop this “weight cycling” and fight very hard to permanently maintain a healthy body weight.
Yo-yo dieting, also called weight cycling, stresses the body, says Susan L. Besser, MD, with Mercy Medical Center, Baltimore; Diplomate, American Board of Obesity Medicine and board certified by the American Board of Family Medicine.
“Yo-yo dieting can cause rapid changes in the body (physically and metabolically) which can affect the body,” explains Dr. Besser. This includes the heart.
“It is much better to be consistent with what you do — eating behaviors, exercise — than do rapid shifting.”
Nevertheless, nobody really knows precisely what the mechanism is that yo-yo dieting negatively impacts heart health.
However, researchers at Columbia University Irving Medical Center presented some compelling findings at the American Heart Association’s Epidemiology and Prevention/Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health 2019 Scientific Sessions in Houston, TX.
And it’s these findings that will give chronic yo-yo dieters some serious pause.
The team found that women who had a history of weight cycling had more cardiovascular risk factors than did women who had maintained a stable body weight over time.
Yo-Yo Dieting Defined
Like a yo-yo, the person’s weight goes down and up, down and up – weight loss followed by weight gain – over and over, spanning years. Even a fluctuation of only 10 pounds counts as yo-yo dieting.
What the Researchers Used and Found
The American Heart Association has a Life’s Simple 7: a group of risk factors and health behaviors that yield a picture of heart health. This includes body mass index, total cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar, exercise and smoking.
The study involved 485 women with an average age of 37 who’d had at least one episode of yo-yo dieting.
The team found that the more episodes of yo-yo dieting, the worse the women performed on Life’s Simple 7.
Thus, a direct correlation was revealed between frequency of weight cycling and poor Life’s Simple 7 results.
Association Doesn’t Establish Cause and Effect
The researchers point out that this finding does not reveal cause and effect; only an association.
However, there are theories for the association.
For instance, weight loss could result in some lost muscle tissue. But when the weight is regained, all of the regain is fat. This means more fat despite the same body weight. And of course, excess fat is not good for the body.
A second explanation that’s posed by the researchers is that blood sugar, blood pressure and triglycerides increase with each weight regain. But they don’t offer an explanation for why this is.
A third explanation – not posed by the researchers but nevertheless worth thinking about – is that women who are prone to yo-yo dieting may also be prone to other behaviors or habits that are bad for heart health – or at least associated with cardiovascular risk factors – such as excessive sleep, inability to manage mental stress, high alcohol consumption and poor diet.
Older Bodies
Dr. Besser points out that “the older body doesn’t respond as well to rapid changes as the younger body does.”
If you’re middle aged or older, this is all the more reason to end your yo-yo dieting once and for all.
Tips for Ending Yo-Yo Dieting
The following will help raise your resting metabolism, give you more energy and discourage junk food binges.
• Engage in both cardio and strength training.
• For strength training, focus on big moves like squats, leg and chest presses, overhead presses and pulling motions. Minimize time spent on “tiny” exercises such as dumbbell kickbacks, dumbbell side raises and biceps curls.
• If you use a treadmill, here are 10 reasons not to hold on.
• Employ HIIT: high intensity interval training
• Don’t try to avoid your favorite foods. This is demoralizing. Instead, practice PORTION CONTROL.
• Snack on heart healthy foods such as nuts, seeds, fruits and green salads.
Dr. Besser provides comprehensive family care, treating common and acute primary conditions like diabetes and hypertension. Her ongoing approach allows her the opportunity to provide accurate and critical diagnoses of more complex conditions and disorders.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified by the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained clients of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
Top image: Shutterstock/Cronislaw
Source: cuimc.columbia.edu/news/yo-yo-dieting-linked-heart-disease-risk-women
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